Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Mike Pearson, PhD, RPBio visits the Boundary

April 2015, fisheries and habitat biologist Mike Pearson visited the Grand Forks and Gilpin areas to assess various streams and wetlands.Mike and his company, Pearson Ecological Inc, work primarily in the Fraser Valley on restoration/conservation work and Mike's concerns over habitat damage and endangered species have received frequent attention in the press and in extended artricles by environment reporter Larry Pynn in the Vancouver Sun.Thanks to the efforts of Barry and Midge Brandow, Mike visited the various sites and was speaker at a public meeting in Grand Forks April 10 2015. (See April 1 2015 post)The writer was pleased to sponsor the meeting on behalf of www.boundaryalliance.org and introduce Mike.Mike's Habitat Assessment Report report is self-explanatory as to causes of problems and potential solutions.We note that since his report was written, "The Spring on Nature Trust Property, Gilpin"has been fenced by volunteers who also funded the project.Barry Brandow and this writer (Al Grant) primarily constructed the new 'wildlife friendly fence' to replace a smaller poorly constructed and non functional fence installed by Range Branch a few years ago. We received some help with the work from Nature Trust and several other volunteers. Our thanks to all.The Nature Trust property in the Gilpin was the first Nature Trust acquisition in BC in 1973 and for the first time in 42 years a small section will now be protected from range-cows and off-roaders. The remainder of this plot and several others in the Gilpin remain unprotected.We expect that this new fenced area of about 6 acres will provide a model for wildlife friendly fencing and may prompt Range Branch to utilize similar fencing on future projects, something they have been reluctant to do.

For this writer, the issues covered by Mike are some of many longstanding issues that have not been remedied by Range Branch or other various Ministries over the years and we do not expect that these issues will be addressed in any meaningful way by the Kettle River Watershed Management Planning Process. More to come in future articles about the KRWMP and it's shortcomings and potential threats.See Mike Pearson's full report; here

Quotes

"the human understanding once it has adopted an opinion.....draws all things else to support and agree with it"

"and although there be a greater weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects or despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusion may remain inviolate".Sir Francis Bacon, about 400 years ago

Today psychologists call it "confirmation bias".Knowing its universal reach is to guard against it.

"facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored"

Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays

"it is impossible to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends on him not understanding"Upton Sinclair

"one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen" Aldo Leopold

"experts are often as imprisoned by their beliefs as anyone else"Bob Wiley The Mud Report